Has “Best Buy” gone bad

It used to be that Best Buy had friendly helpful salespeople. They weren’t always the most knowledgeable but, they were non commission which seemed to make all the difference. Unlike circuit city and frys, they weren’t pushy and condescending.

Now, I went to Best Buy to buy a Xoom tablet computer. The salesman brought the head salesman out to lie to me. He gave me some story about how the Xoom would not work unless I signed up with the Verizon service. I think they were trying to get me to sign up for verizon service through them.

Then, they acted like I’m an idiot for not taking the service plan. I understand they make money on those. It’s fine to offer a service plan but not fine to treat me like I am not qualified to decide.

They pushed geek squad services. They wanted me to sign up right away before they rang it up. I said I didn’t want any geek squad services and they wanted me to sign and date a piece of paper saying that I didn’t want them. What!? I don’t have to sign and date something to NOT buy your service.

Maybe the poor customer treatment is the result of a lack of competition now that Circuit City is dead. They are the only electronics store within 20 miles (maybe more).